Observe a laboratory activity or base your answer on past visits. How does your CT conduct a typical laboratory activity? How does he or she open the activity and organize student groups? How do students learn what they're expected to do during the period? Reflect on your reading about inquiry and your experience with the NECAP inquiry task. How did the laboratory activity you observe prepare students for the type of activities that might show up on the NECAP in the future? What inquiry elements would you strengthen? What science practices do you want to stress when you're teaching?
Observation:
In my observation, I participated in a science Lab about enzymes. The class started out with some notes, to finish up some Ideas about enzymes. The class was then told to work with the person sitting next to them for a laboratory. The lab was an experiment to see how enzymes work in different situations (ie. heated, cooled or at room temperature). The students were first asked to hypothesize what would happen. They talked about it as a group, then the students wrote their thoughts on their worksheet. In pairs, the student's performed the experiment and preceded to answer the questions on the worksheet. The worksheet asked the students to write their observations and explain why the experiement went as it did. It also asked the students what the variables were and what errors could have occured. Then the students were to analyze their results and compare them with their hypothesis.
Reflections:
This experiment was pretty much teacher controlled. The teacher chose the topic and the question, as well as the method and materials. The students were encouraged to think about what they thought would happen based on logical reasoning. This was a good aspect of inquiry that I observed in this experiment. The students also had to analyze their results on their own. I would certainly strengthen the aspects of inquiry in this experiment in several ways. I would open the class mapping out the daily activites and the reason for the activities. I would have preceeded with the notes and then begun to ask the students questions to make them think about enzymes and how they work. I would ask them "What factors do you think could affect enzyme's functions?" "How could we test the function of an enzyme in different conditions?" "What variables could we have". This would still be teacher controlled in the sense that the teacher would guide the students into the direction that the teacher feels best, but it also could have some leeway. They students would get the sense they were controlling the experiement, and could have possibly come up with different tests that the teacher had not planned in the laboratory that she planned. The students would come up with the questions and the methods in this case. Adding more inquiry to this laboratory helps the students get engaged into the activity. I feel that they would actually get excited to put their ideas to test.
The laboratory that I observed prepared the students for the type of activities that might show up on the NECAP, by encouraging them to hypothesize and analyze why they got the results they did. By strengthening the laboratory, as I had mentioned, the students would also be prepared in connecting what they know to find the answers they are looking for. The inquiry assessments on the NECAP required students to use the knowledge they already have to find the answer, it doesn't require them to remember a lot of facts about certain events. Instead, students need to know how to use the tools they have to obtain the aswers to what they are looking for.
Observation:
In my observation, I participated in a science Lab about enzymes. The class started out with some notes, to finish up some Ideas about enzymes. The class was then told to work with the person sitting next to them for a laboratory. The lab was an experiment to see how enzymes work in different situations (ie. heated, cooled or at room temperature). The students were first asked to hypothesize what would happen. They talked about it as a group, then the students wrote their thoughts on their worksheet. In pairs, the student's performed the experiment and preceded to answer the questions on the worksheet. The worksheet asked the students to write their observations and explain why the experiement went as it did. It also asked the students what the variables were and what errors could have occured. Then the students were to analyze their results and compare them with their hypothesis.
Reflections:
This experiment was pretty much teacher controlled. The teacher chose the topic and the question, as well as the method and materials. The students were encouraged to think about what they thought would happen based on logical reasoning. This was a good aspect of inquiry that I observed in this experiment. The students also had to analyze their results on their own. I would certainly strengthen the aspects of inquiry in this experiment in several ways. I would open the class mapping out the daily activites and the reason for the activities. I would have preceeded with the notes and then begun to ask the students questions to make them think about enzymes and how they work. I would ask them "What factors do you think could affect enzyme's functions?" "How could we test the function of an enzyme in different conditions?" "What variables could we have". This would still be teacher controlled in the sense that the teacher would guide the students into the direction that the teacher feels best, but it also could have some leeway. They students would get the sense they were controlling the experiement, and could have possibly come up with different tests that the teacher had not planned in the laboratory that she planned. The students would come up with the questions and the methods in this case. Adding more inquiry to this laboratory helps the students get engaged into the activity. I feel that they would actually get excited to put their ideas to test.
The laboratory that I observed prepared the students for the type of activities that might show up on the NECAP, by encouraging them to hypothesize and analyze why they got the results they did. By strengthening the laboratory, as I had mentioned, the students would also be prepared in connecting what they know to find the answers they are looking for. The inquiry assessments on the NECAP required students to use the knowledge they already have to find the answer, it doesn't require them to remember a lot of facts about certain events. Instead, students need to know how to use the tools they have to obtain the aswers to what they are looking for.